When you drive onto a farm yard, the golden rule is to always park so that you do not have to back up. If at all possible, you want to always drive forward. This is one of the first rules most companies will teach new employees that visit farms. Even before learning about products, margins and sales skills, employees are taught about safety. No company wants an employee to mistakenly back up over a favorite pet, or even worse, a small child.

Select Sires is looking for new, exciting photos of Select-sired offspring and customers to use in promotions such as calendars, posters, brochures, on the website and much more. The photo contest is open to all amateur photographers including Select Sires customers, employees and employee family members. Contestants can enter as many photos as they wish.

Steley, the first 24/7 online auction website specifically for livestock, allows consumers to buy and sell cattle genetics worldwide. The concept for Steley, was born out of owner, Stephen Maddox Jr.’s frustration for having to wait for the right auction to market and sell his family’s genetics and Registered Holsteins. “In this tough dairy economy we believe that it is important to market the genetics that we have worked hard to achieve,” said Maddox. “In our eyes, having registered animals is one of the ways to further diversify our family business.”

Former California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary A.G. Kawamura recently appointed two dairy processors and a producer to the Dairy Council of California’s board of directors. The new members are Pete Garbani, director of Western Region Milk Supply for Land O’Lakes; Laura Burns, plant manager at Kraft Foods; and Kimberly Clauss, operations manager of Clauss Dairy Farms and co-owner of Hilmar Cheese.

AgSource has announced the release of the Genetic Selection Guide, a new report designed to assist members of the cooperative using its DHI services in managing decisions related to breeding and herd genetics. Between now and April 1 all members will receive the report as part of their regular DHI report packet.

Penn State research shows that reproductive performance is one the most common bottlenecks to profitability on Pennsylvania dairies. Reproductive performance impacts the bulk tank as longer days open and extended calving intervals lead to fewer days of peak milk production. To address these bottlenecks to profitability, Penn State Dairy Alliance is offering a series of Advanced Reproduction Workshops at sites across the state in March. This workshop is for dairy producers, their employees, and interested dairy industry personnel. Participants in the Advanced Reproduction Workshop will receive in-depth training in heat synchronization methods, the use of BioPRYN, using genomics to improve herd genetics, and managing reproductive diseases.

The Animal Agriculture Alliance announced that the number of participants in its College Aggies Online scholarship competition has grown from 350 to 577 students. In 2009, the Alliance partnered with the American National CattleWomen, Inc. to launch CAO and help college students become more confident advocates for the agriculture industry.